21 tips for incoming 365ers

If you're a newbie and happen to be reading this, note that ANY advice you read should be taken with a grain of salt. It's your project, your rules. But as my first year comes to a close, I'm thinking retrospectively, and remembering that the various lists of suggestions in here were helpful to me as I began my journey.

So here in no particular order (and purely subjectively formulated) are 21 things I'd suggest for succeeding in doing this thing.

1. Have your camera nearby at all times, and be on the lookout for beauty.

2. Keep a tripod in your car.

3. Don't be a perfectionist. As someone said so succinctly a year ago, it’s 365 photos, not 365 masterpieces.

4. If you think you should have captured it, stop, go back, and capture it.

5. It all boils down to aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Keep exploring all three.

6. Get close to some puddles. Then flip them.

7. Buy a birdfeeder.

8. Never underestimate the power of cliché.

9. Posting within a few days of taking a shot takes effort, but catching up on two weeks of uploading takes even more.

10. A macro lens opens up a whole new world.

11. Expect the unexpected.

12. There will be sad days. Let the camera help.

13. Get to know the world in black and white.

14. Purchase Adobe Lightroom.

15. Trust the rule of thirds.

16. Choose a spot from which to capture the seasons.

17. Find your own balance in interacting with this inspiring, supportive community, and celebrate that everyone does it differently.

18. Feel free to crop, edit, and otherwise process, but try to do it with subtlety.
(And if all else fails, ETSOOI.)

19. When you're not feeling the mojo, just pick up the camera and start walking around.

20. The photo you snap in the morning may be the only one you take all day.

Very good advice and beautifully done - I'm in my third year and find it useful & inspirational!
(Now there's a thought, if someone starting is a 'newbie' what do we call someone who has been here a while? Please don't say it's an 'oldbie'...!)

Fantastic suggestions!! And so helpful to have an image to go with each one. I'd add, find 365ers work you like and follow them, study their EXIF settings. Also, do a tag search to find people using the same camera as you. Then follow and study their settings.

My two cents worth is to concentrate on the "craft" of photography. "Art" tends to happen somewhat automatically if your technique is good. Rely on the technology, Auto Focus and all its variants especially, but understand how it all works. Get out of AUTO as soon as you can and into "A" priority especially. Learn your camera and try for a new camera feature every week!

Made me smile....so many points are true. I've failed at the tripod rule...and now that it's dark all the time the hand tremor is killing me. I think that will be my new year's resolution. Thanks for posting.

You've spent a lot of time preparing these tips along with all the fabulous accompanying photos. I want to congratulate you as well as thank you and pinned this to one of my Pinterest boards as a reminder. I've been on 365 for 2 1/2 years and sadly still have a lot to learn. I've being doing it mainly for fun but I really need to brush up on photography skills and experiments. Thanks again for providing a jump start to a new year in photography. My favorite photo is #12.

Good advice, wish someone gave me these when I started back in September, but ok, I've made 25% already and now I wouldn't call me a newbie anymore :)
3, 4, 12, 13, 17 & 20 are the most important to me.

Thank you SO MUCH for this list and the accompanying photographs! I don't consider myself a newbie, coming up on finishing my first year, but I really AM. I have so much to learn. This list is VERY helpful! Can't wait to see what my 2nd year brings! Thanks again! :)

What a list, fantastic advice, I am heading into my third year. Each 365 photos are compiled into a photo journal, my way of keeping memories of the year as I am not into diaries. Advice #4 occurred yesterday :-)
Thankyou

Such a lot of good advice and excellent illustrations. I think establishing a rhythm to your posting helps a lot too. I would have loved to see this at the start of my first year, and it's still valuable. Must have taken quite a while to put together, so thanks!

Thanks so much for taking the time to compile this list. I love the challenge of photography - that there's so much to learn no matter how many days we've been posting. This next year I'll be working on the big three...aperture, shutter speed and ISO. I haven't missed a day since I started 365 on August 14 and I rarely am so committed to a project. So obviously it taps into a great interest of mine and I hope to keep improving!

Wonderful tips!! I just finished my first year, and I am pumped about starting the second! I got a new camera (Canon Rebel T3i) and learning all about it is my goal for my second year. I think the one that stands out the most to me is your advice - it's 365 photographs, not 365 masterpieces! Well said! Can you explain the "rule of thirds" please? Thanks.

Hi Renée, welcome to 365. There isn't a particular mobile app for 365project.org, but it works pretty well through your browser, and there is an email option.

I went through the very same thought process as you a year ago, and while I love having an app for everything, I can attest that the tradeoff of no app for an amazing community is well worth it. @reneemarije

This is great! I love taking photos but was feeling a little daunted by a lot of the photos on here that are so wonderful. Felt that my day to day captures were not the things to put on here. This has made me feel a Bit better about it and the fact that 3 & 21 are there will help spur me on :-)

Thank you for this beautifully done helpful hints! I am new this year and currently my iphone is my camera. I have done ok with it, but I see a better camera in my future.
I do have a question though...Could you explain why Lightroom is something to purchase? I have seen people talk about it and even jumped on the "webinar" the other day, but it was way over my head.

@jodibear58 So... I can only attest to my own journey to finding and loving LightRoom.

First, let me say that I began 365 thinking I was a SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera) purist, and within a week I realized that just the slightest of post-processing edits could take a good shot and turn it into a great one. Take for instance your really cool mushroom-lights-in-the-snow shot from January 3rd. If that were rotated just a hair to eliminate the upper lefthand corner, really cool would turn into SUPER cool. That takes less than a second in LightRoom (and in many other programs as well). Or you could leave it oriented as is and clone snow over that corner almost as quickly.

So anyway I knew I needed an editing program, and I found myself taking so many photos that I needed a new way to organize them. I've played over the years with a whole lot of platforms and used many different organizing and editing programs. And while each has its merits, when I began using LightRoom I immediately knew it had the "Just Right" factor of organizing/editing balance. It's not overwhelming like the full-fledged PhotoShop, not rigid and photo duplicating like iPhoto, not fickle and flimsy like beloved Picasa can sometimes be, and not esoteric like Gimp. I haven't used Aperture, so I can't speak for it, but I've just found that LightRoom works for sorting, editing, and exporting all of my shots in a simple and efficient manner, and that no task (organizing, editing, exporting) is subservient to the others.

I've rambled and perhaps complicated what's actually pretty simple: LightRoom can be used right away by a beginner, and yet it's feature-rich enough that one can grow and learn to do many complicated things with it. I highly recommend Julieanne Kost's videos. She really explains it well. http://jkost.com/lightroom.html

@squamloon Thank you for the explanation and the answer to this question and the one I asked on my other pic. I had read that before I read this lol. I am going to look into Lightroom. It sounds less overwhelming than photoshop.

I have Lightroom and have a question. Can you please share how you upload a photo from LR? I am not certain how large to make the image so that it is the correct size for posting! I am new to sharing my work on a website. Also a brand new 365er!

I'm a newbie, thank you for the tips. I'm struggling with remembering to grab my camera every morning before going to work.
I shot in Auto for a while but for this project am trying to not use auto at all, lately I've been using aperture priority but am going to try using full manual mode once I feel comfortable doing so.

Just happened upon your list today. Thank you for taking the time to put this thoughtful list and photos together. There were several points you made that will certainly help me. Liked the tips others have contributed also, so Thanks All!

@squamloon wow! Thank you so much for this list. I just began my 365 project January 1st and felt a bit overwhelmed by the dedication it will take to stay on task. But your post has eased my hesitation and I will definitely keep a lot of these tips in mind as I begin my journey. Thank you!

just starting my own project and i enjoyed reading through these tips, will definitely remind myself of them in the future!!
i especially love the quote on number 3, could i maybe add that to my profile as a little reminder for me and anyone who will visit??

Nice... I posted a topics that asked pretty much you answer. I think I need to keep point #3 (Don't be a perfectionist. As someone said so succinctly a year ago, it’s 365 photos, not 365 masterpieces.) in mind often.

Great advice! I'm a newbie and today is day 7. I appreciate no.3 the most, will look at Lightroom and I was guilty of too much editing yesterday as I used an iPhone as didn't have my camera with me (no. 1). So thank you for the inspiration going forward.

It goes without saying that you certainly struck a chord with everyone here on 365! Your list with accompanying photos made for brilliant examples! I'd never thought to do as Taffy @taffy suggested and check out similar cameras; good idea! The longer I've been here, the more I check exif information and have fond it helpful. Thanks for a terrific meeting place here! It was wonderful!

I really needed to read this. I've lost a bit of my motivation for photography here lately, and I really hate that. I need to read #3 over and over. I've recently become discouraged because I haven't been picking up my camera near as often as i should and it's starting to show in my work. Going to try and take these tips to heart and get back in the saddle! Last year I started packing my camera every where I went (my purse weighs a ton now, but that's okay!), and I chucked my tripod and even my reflector discs in my trunk. Now, I just need to actually use them. =)

As a newbie on here, I m thinking that I am not in the right forum here. I am also sure that I do not have the same kind of camera as al of you. I own a auto focus camera and the other camera is my Iphone that I take pictures with. I have been on my 365project for not very long.

Great tips, could have used this advice when I joined 365 back in 2011 then got so overwhelmed I left for 4 years. I wouldn't add anything to your list other than adding to Number 1, to ALWAYS take your camera when you go outside (for whatever reason) .

I have a question, not sure if this is the right spot...
I've just started, not even an amateur photographer but want/need a hobby and ready to focus on something new.

So here's the question, sometimes I struggle deciding which ONE picture to post.
And I see many post more than one each day.
Is is ok to post more than one?
Should I just choose one as my...day 10/365 and then post others in a different album if I want?
Or is it really supposed to be, just one picture an day?
Thanks for any thoughts
Susan

@squamloon i read these when I started and I've just read them again and I love them more. I don't do all the list which I should, but they are all spot on. I didn't think my sad days would be so sad this year, but they were and the camera has helped loads. Wel done!

Great tips, and I loved how you used photos to illustrate. I started on Jan. 1, and at that time I intended to do it for at least a month and see what I thought. Now I think I am hooked for the year :)

brilliant advise, I have a lot to do and learn, but totally enjoying my journey and always encouraging comments and fav of lovely people here on 365. you have given me a lot to think about. thank you :)